After the meal, Lance did not leave in a hurry, but asked for a pot of white silver needles and enjoyed the Chinese/Chinese afternoon tea slowly. After observing the situation of the "Bear Claw" opposite, in fact, the "Bear Claw" should be a brunch café, not a formal French restaurant, and the baked pastries here are quite famous in the lower / urban area, because of the good quality and low price, it is popular with many slum dwellers.

Jeffrey still sits in "Bear Claws," spending nearly three hours outside just for smoking, then answering the phone twice, and spending the rest of the time in the café writing the script. Judging by his terrible expression, things are not going as expected.

Lance picked up his phone, dialed a number, and then saw Jeffrey pick up the phone, looked at the number, walked out of the "bear paw" quickly, and picked up the phone, "Hey, Lance." Jeffrey's voice came through the earpiece, and Lance could clearly see Jeffrey's restless steps beside the street.

"Jeffrey, have you had lunch?" Lance didn't cut straight to the point, but hesitantly went around in circles, the hesitation in his voice was very obvious, the two of them came and went to make small talk, Lance took a deep breath and said hesitantly, "Jeffrey, I have something to tell you." ”

Jeffrey in his sight was still pacing, obviously not hearing the stern nature of Lance's words, "What? ”

Lance gritted his teeth and said in a puff, "I met with Mark Gordon today, and he was thinking about handing over the 'day after tomorrow' to me to make zuò. Jeffrey's footsteps immediately stopped in place, his muscles tensed, even if he couldn't see clearly, he could depict the shock of his facial expression at the moment, "Jeffrey, things are complicated, I can't tell you clearly on the phone, where are you now?" I'll be there right away. ”

Jeffrey didn't come to his senses after a strong shock, and he took a hard drag on his cigarette, "Uh, my 'bear paw' next to City Hall?" Do you know where it is? ”

"Yes, I'll be there soon!" Lance spoke, leaving no room for Jeffrey, and hung up the phone.

For the past two weeks, Lance has been in contact with Paramount, Warner Bros., and Disney, and he has been so busy that he has no direct contact with Twentieth Century Fox. But after Percy heard about the "day after tomorrow" system, Lance began to approach Jeffrey in a planned way.

At first, it was just a chance encounter in the library, Jeffrey was looking for information about natural disasters such as tsunamis and typhoons, and Lance reached out and gave a little help, and the two got to know each other; The second time was in the coffee house, where Jeffrey, who was sitting in the coffee house writing a script, found Lance who was queuing up to buy coffee, and took the initiative to come over to say hello, and there happened to be not many vacant seats left that day, so Lance and Jeffrey shared a table.

That was the first time they talked about the script "The Day After Tomorrow", and Lance gave one or two key comments. Jeffrey was so surprised that after a deep chat, he learned that Lance was the director of the recently popular "City of God", which was really an unexpected surprise for Jeffrey. Jeffrey wants to have a deeper conversation with Lance, but Lance has something to do that day and has to leave first, and the two decide to meet later.

After that, Lance and Jeffrey met three times. Obviously, Lance resonated with Jeffrey quite a bit, especially since "The Day After Tomorrow" was Jeffrey's first work, and Lance had just finished his debut novel, which made the two men have a lot of common topics. Jeffrey jokingly said, "It would be fun to work with you." But Jeffrey didn't mention his disagreement with Roland and Mark.

After Lance hung up the phone, he didn't move, just watched Jeffrey's every move condescendingly. Obviously, Jeffrey was completely shocked by the news, and he never imagined that the new friend he had just met would now come to steal the job of his old buddy Roland - the point is that Roland introduced him to the screenwriting job "the day after tomorrow".

Jeffrey was like an ant on a hot pot, constantly going back and forth in circles, grabbing his hair fiercely, but he couldn't figure out a clue, he didn't know what to do, he took out his mobile phone, and kept tossing the old-fashioned flip phone, obviously hesitating whether he should call Roland or not. However, Lance just said that the situation was very complicated and needed to be explained in person, which made Jeffrey hesitate again, not sure whether he should wait until he had figured it out before calling Roland.

This contradiction made Jeffrey hold his head in annoyance and pause, and the whole person looked very painful. After hesitating to the end, years of friendship prevailed, and Jeffrey turned on his phone, dialed the phone, and told Roland everything.

Lance sat in the booth and watched quietly as this qiē happened. The delicate aroma of white silver needles in the air made it easy for people to calm down, and he felt that people like Jeffrey were very rare, even in the face of interests, he always chose friendship. Although such people are always easy to suffer losses in society, and they are often losers, this pure heart is still worthy of recognition.

All Lance needed was for Jeffrey to call Roland.

With Roland's personality, he may not tear up his face with Mark, but he will definitely come to the door to verify, and Mark will naturally not admit that it did not happen - he has rejected Lance outright; But they did meet, which shows that Mark still has his own calculations in his heart. It is foreseeable that this confrontation will end unhappily in the end, and may even add fuel to the already tense atmosphere.

Now, it's Reims' turn.

Lance got up and walked to the counter, handed the credit card to the young man standing at the counter, and looked into the kitchen, where the kind mother and her husband were squatting by the stove for lunch—it was nearly two o'clock now. The young man avoided Lance's gaze in some embarrassment, which made Lance really laugh, and he took the credit card again, and said gently, "It will be good to talk a lot, as if I had just started to learn...... It's the same in Chinese. ”

After saying that, Lance didn't stop at all, and left the restaurant called "Boss Wang".

The young man scratched his head, apparently not quite understanding what was going on with the American, and looked down, only to find three hundred-dollar bills pressed under the beckoning cat on the counter - not a hundred dollars for this meal. This made the young man stunned in place, a little overwhelmed.

Lance left through the back door of the building, then went all the way back to the parking lot, drove back to the vicinity of "Bear Claw", looked for a parking space, and got out of the car in a panic and walked straight in the direction where "Bear Claw" was.

Jeffrey, who was standing at the door and still didn't go in, saw Lance at a glance, and heard Lance apologize again and again from a distance, with a look of embarrassment, "I didn't expect it, I really didn't think of it." Jeffrey's attitude towards Lance was still a little complicated, but at this time, seeing Lance's sincere and anxious expression, he couldn't help but secretly blame himself for his preconceptions, but he still resisted the urge to speak, and waited irritably for Lance's explanation.

"I've been looking for partnerships with big companies lately, and I don't know if you know, Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, I've looked it all in. For an independent company like mine, working with them is the most direct and effective way to do it with limited investment, and Twentieth Century Fox is on my list. Lance half-truthfully said, his words a little messy, but at least he made it all clear, "I've been trying to promote this kind of collaboration, and then this morning Mark Gordon informed me that there was a project I might be able to take over. I went to the door in a hurry, and it turned out to be ......"

Even needless to say, Jeffrey got it.

Lance rubbed his temples and spun around in place twice in empathy, "I know it's your and Roland's effort, and I know I should maintain a gentlemanly demeanor, but...... Mark said that he wanted to hear my ideas and insights again and see what would happen as a result, and I knew I should say no...... But......" Lance looked down in frustration, a look of chagrin, and finally looked up firmly and calmly at Jeffrey, "but I couldn't speak. ”

The anger in Jeffrey's chest swelled up directly, "You! But just one word was spoken, and all the words were blocked in the chest, and there was no catharsis at all. Because he knows Lance's situation, an independent film company like Chaos Pictures is trying to survive in Hollywood, and no opportunity can be missed; is also because he knows Lance's talent, not only the "City of God", but also the recent period of getting along, even he can't help but wonder what it would be like if "The Day After Tomorrow" was filmed by Lance......

However, Reims competed with Roland or himself.

This tangled and contradictory emotion made Jeffrey hardly able to calm down, he paced from side to side, chagrin, irritation, and anger, but finally let out a long breath, "So, what is the post they offer you?" ”

"The production process is all over to Chaos Pictures, and then it's ...... Producer and director. Although Lance looked embarrassed, he still said frankly, and finally waved his hand helplessly, "There is also the script, they think that the current script still needs to be revised." So at the next meeting, they wanted to hear my thoughts and opinions on the script. But ......"

But many of Lance's opinions had already been told to Jeffrey, which made Jeffrey stunned for a moment.

"Jeffrey, I know my choice is not very gentlemanly, but I don't think I did it wrong, I just want you to know the whole picture, and then if you can, I'm willing to play fair with Roland." Lance continued, his blue eyes full of sincerity.

Jeffrey opened his mouth, hesitated, and opened his mouth again...... But in the end, he drooped his shoulders and felt weak.

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